Private Even Dreams End

[Alina Tremiru]

Everything was like a dream. The Force was beautiful. The swirl of energy was now so easily felt by every part of her body. Strings, ever waiting to be plucked and make the most soothing of sounds. It never tasted this sweet either. Another corpse laid out as Alina dropped it. Blood soaked the floor. Her hands. Her face. Overindulgence was something every Sangnir instinctively knew to hate, less they become little more than addicts. But Alina was already an addict. Had been all her life.

Now she just had the ability to feel it.

A sweeter scent, one of the sweetest she knew of, filled her nose. Golden eyes widened with straight joy as she rushed off towards the source. Uncaring of the ruined town she was in. Uncaring of the people who caught glimpses of what looked like a bloodied ghost speeding by. A bright smile took over as she neared the source and she jumped forward without a second thought to try and tackle the passing green figure into a hug.

"It's you!"

Amani Serys

 

[Amani Serys]

Amani had already been in town for a few days, before the commotion started. What began as a routine visit was quickly upturned by an apparent act of random violence. Confusion gave way to panic, and before she was even able to respond, the damage had already been done.

Some ran to hide, others cried for help. Near as she could tell, the only one who made any progress was the one that reached her. And now their bloody corpse lay crumpled in the street ahead. The perpetrator came in like a blur, and Amani flinched at its approach. She couldn't even register the embrace, or the voice, at first.

"...Alina?" The Jedi's voice shook with a concoction of shock, fear, and sadness. After all their efforts, this was where it had gotten them. Sticky blood now matted against both of their clothes. There was no mistaking who was behind this massacre. Amani's eyes widened as she came to recognize more bodies, "W-What did you do?" She tried to push Alina off of her.

Alina Tremiru​

 

[Alina Tremiru]

Alina was simply overjoyed at seeing Amani. She held the hug, at least until she noticed the green woman pushing her away. And the fear in her eyes. The Sangnir blinked, her own golden eyes filled with confusion. Then turned her gaze back to where she had come from. "I was hungry. Don't worry! They were all criminals. The nasty bunch."

Maybe that's why Amani seemed so disgusted. Alina's smile returned as she glanced back. "Nobody anyone would miss!"

Amani Serys

 

[Amani Serys]

Amani stared, baffled by Alina's explanation. Could she not see just how much damage she had sown? Had she succumbed to her curse's worst impulses? Just like Amani had warned her could happen.

"...No." The healer's voice warbled, and she took a cautious step backward. Each word was enunciated carefully, as if to avoid somehow setting off the feral Sith, "Look around you, Alina. I was working with them. We were setting up clinics, and outreaches, across the area. They were-" Amani choked, and placed a hand over her mouth. The slaughter was indiscriminate. Alina stood stained in the blood of innocents.

"...Why~?"

Alina Tremiru​

 

[Alina Tremiru]

Confusion. That's all Alina felt. Why did she look so diguisted? She didn't do anything wrong. "I didn't do anything wrong." She spoke aloud, her golden eyes scanning over the people still fleeing. This was normal. Natural. She could feel it in her very being. Even the Force sang how normal it was for her. She needed to feed on Anima. These people had anima.

What made her broken had been fixed, so why..?

Genuine hurt filled her gaze as she looked back to the Mirialan. A hurt that quickly turned to anger. The air grew tense as her anger grew. She didn't do anything wrong. This was who she was.

"I told you who I was. I always told you. I'm not broken. I fixed that. I didn't do anything wrong!"

Amani Serys

 

[Amani Serys]

"And I told you this would happen!" Amani broke. Alina's apparent success when it came to her Force connection was drowned out by the horror around them. "This isn't about that. You-- You've killed innocent people now! Why?!" On instinct she reached for her belt fearfully as the Sith grew angrier, but made herself stop halfway.

"Please-- Alina. This has to stop. This all has to stop." Amani tried to strike a calmer chord, with debatable effect. She reached out a hand passively, as if to soothe the Sangnir back into a more reasonable state of mind. The healer still refused to believe there was no fix for her condition. If this wasn't enough proof that Alina's exploits had been taken too far, then what would be.

Alina Tremiru​

 

[Alina Tremiru]

"Stop?"

The air rumbled. The Force rumbled. Anger grew. Anger. Betrayal. Hate. Alina's gaze narrowed as she slowly closed her fists. And with it, pressure around Amani's throat. "I've done nothing wrong!" She screamed. Pure rage flooded out around them. The very air crackled with energy. Loose debris floated. The ground cracked. The Dark Side of the Force flowed all too freely around the Sith, uncontrolled in her anger.

"There's nothing for me to stop! I eat people. I never once said I didn't. I am Sangnir. You don't get angry at a Krayt Dragon for eating Banthas do you? I even made sure they were criminals! And that's not even good enough for you!?"

Amani Serys

 

[Amani Serys]

“You’re not listening to me!” The words were going right over the Sangnir’s head, “They were innocent, Alina! You’re not…” An incorporeal weight slowly clasped over her throat, and she trailed off as it tightened. Not even Amani was safe from her now, and her confliction now left her vulnerable. Seeing Alina in this state, after how well she had managed before, broke the healer’s heart. Like all their progress had just been thrown away.

The pressure around her neck was making it harder to even think about all of that. “Please…” Amani forced out the word. Her nerves began to burn, neurons firing on alert as the air supply continued to dwindle. Survival instinct made her claw at the dark, invisible presence, as if that alone could unlatch it, “Alina…”

Alina Tremiru​

 

[Alina Tremiru]

"I should've known. I should've fethin' known. I can't live in your vision of the Galaxy. No Sangnir can. You can't accept me." Alina's anger dimmed with every word. With it, the pressure on Amani's throat did the same. Anger just turned to sorrow. A pitiful expression took over the blood stained features of the Sith. Why did it have to be this way? Why couldn't Amani just see what Alina was trying to do.

All she wanted was a friend. Someone who could understand her. Accept the monster she was without fear.

"You're like all the others." Alina closed her eyes. The seeming storm of energy died down around her. Then her flesh split. In a spray of blood and flesh her warform emerged. Blood coated the fur of the much larger wolflike figure, blood that quickly seemed to be absorbed. Golden eyes glared down at the Jedi, devoid of any emotion.

"Is this easier for you? A monster to hate and fear? Run, little mouse. Jedi and Sith cannot coexist at all."

Amani Serys

 

[Amani Serys]

Alina’s grip released, and air rushed in to fill the freed space. Amani buckled over in a messy coughing fit, and looked up at the woman she had tried to help with wetted eyes. Whether it was from emotion, or simply being strangled, she could no longer tell; But the pain of betrayal stung all the same. “I don’t want to fight you, Alina.”

“I only ever wanted to help you.” The hurt was apparent in her voice. She watched as the Sith transformed into a beastly creature, but lacked the energy to express more exaggerated emotions. “We were there, Alina. Please don’t turn your back on everything we did.” Amani inhaled shakily, and remained on her knees.

Alina Tremiru​

 

[Alina Tremiru]

"We were where." Venom dripped from her tone as she straightened up. Flexed her clawed hands as her eyes narrowed. The scent of life all around them, like this she could smell it. Stronger than before. Pulling at her as it always did. But anger. Hate, it kept her focused on the Jedi in front of her. She reached her hand down, like she was going to grab Amani again.

"This is where I always was. I've done nothing wrong. And now you're going to sit there judging me?"

Her hand stopped before she reached her. And after a moment, she just lashed out with her claws.

"I hate you."

Amani Serys

 

[Amani Serys]

“How can you say that?” Nothing wrong. She wasn’t even living in the same reality as Amani. “Your hunger is taking control. You’re not thinking straight.”

As much as the Jedi tried to remain stone, she couldn’t resist her instincts. As Alina’s hand raised, she flinched back, sparing herself a more lasting fate, but nonetheless her flesh felt the burn of raking claws. The warmth of spilt blood. Her gaze drooped to her arm, now lined with a long gash, the sleeve ripped and stained red. The world felt hazy, but the word hate penetrated that feeling clearly.

“W-we were supposed to be friends…”

Alina Tremiru​

 

[Alina Tremiru]

"You were supposed to accept me as I am! That's what friends do!" That was it. Alina couldn't take this any more. Amani hadn't fled, and the Sith was just done. She brought up her hand again, slashing down without a single care if Amani was going to flee or not. She wanted the Jedi gone. She wanted to forget.

"Go away! Die! I HATE YOU!"

Amani Serys

 

[Rhynne Urdreth]

The small hybrid felt the disturbance from the ship a distance away, she knew Alina has instructed her to continue her practice with the training remote but this felt dire. Something was very wrong. Sending a bolt back at the droid it fizzled and beeped a few times before it dropped to the floor, deactivating itself before Rhynne went running. Digging through the storage compartment she managed to find some old weaponry tucked away, nothing impressive by any means, but a functional lightsaber and a blaster all the same.

Through the streets she saw the carnage left in the wake of her Master, it was something the girl had grown accustomed to by then. Death and destruction, however not usually on such a large scale. She felt the pit in her chest grow as she made her way through the river of blood and bodies, pulling up a hood to hide her horns and hair; last thing she needed was to stand out.

It was then she laid eyes on Alina, on her form exploding into gore and leaving a large wolf creature behind, Rhyn felt something that she was unable to describe, then looking to the small Mirialan left. What did she do to cause Alina such pain....

A hand reached inside her robe, grabbing onto the saber on her belt and hitting the activator switch, a bright red blade emerging with the signature hum.

"What did you do to her!?" Rhynne called out in anger at the green skinned woman, seeming to have no grasp on the situation at all.

Alina Tremiru | Amani Serys

 

[Amani Serys]

“I’m sorry…” For what, she didn’t even know anymore. For failing to be what Alina wanted, or what she needed. She just wanted it to stop.

Whatever progress they had made, whatever they had been to one another, it was all gone now. Amani wanted to feel angry, but she could only feel sorrow.

The new voice only added to her frazzled state of mind. Their features were difficult to make out, but the bright beam of red made it easy enough to assume. Amani tried to scoff, but the sound only came out as a low wheeze. If Alina had been collecting apprentices this whole time, maybe she truly never did care about changing. The final nail in the coffin of what might have been.

Another strike interrupted any more coherent thought. Under the impact, Amani twisted violently, and fell face first into the blood-dashed ground. Pain dulled alongside consciousness, and she grasped weakly at the loose dirt within reach. The will to fight was gone.

Then another presence registered in her mind, then in her foggy gaze. Familiar, warm, and safe. The one presence that might pull her out of this stupor.

Alicio Organa
Alina Tremiru | Rhynne Urdreth​

 

[Alicio Organa]

Alicio had been helping pass out supplies a few blocks away, when he felt something off.

It was a small twinge of unease at first, so small that Alicio could barely sense it. The feeling grew steadily louder and louder, more insistent, more dire, beating against his head and scorching his tongue, until the Count could ignore it no longer.

Without a word to anyone, he sped towards the feeling, unsure what the Force was trying to tell him, or why a directionless panic was filling his chest.

Until he saw the scene.

Two beings of cascading darkness, one toting a red lightsaber, the other... a familiar wolfish form. Perhaps his fear would have stopped him there, were it not for the fact that Amani was on the ground, bleeding in front of them.

They were going to kill her.

Alicio wouldn't allow it.

He ran faster than he ever had before, closing the distance between himself, Alina, and Amani, lightsaber growling to life beside him. The blue and black blade arced out, with all the ferocity of someone defending their loved one, into a wide slash against Amani's aggressor. Alicio planted himself above the crumpled form of the Mirialan, protecting her with his body, and his outstretched blade.

"Don't you dare hurt her."

- Alina Tremiru - Rhynne Urdreth - Amani Serys -

 

[Alina Tremiru]

The dull thud as an arm hit the ground sealed away what was left of Alina's sanity. The beastly warform clutched what was left of the arm to it's chest as it roared in anger and pain. Screamed, really. An unbridled, feral rage that shook the very air around her. The missing limb didn't matter. Alina didn't care. She wanted it to end. She wanted to forget this pain. Forget that everything she'd been working towards was simply shattered because she couldn't be accepted as she was.

The black and blue blade was barely registered in the mind of the beast as she launched herself forward. Brought down her arm for the vaguely familiar shape of the little hero that had gotten in the way some time before. He could be erased, like her. Like all of them.

"What did you do to her!?"

A familiar voice rang in her ears. The bestial charge came to a sudden and jarring stop as the wolfish form stood. Her arm, no longer swinging for the Jedi and the little hero, fell by her side lazily. That's right. She wasn't alone, was she?

"You shouldn't have that lightsaber." It wasn't spoken in anger or annoyance. A surprisingly gentle smile was all she had even as she disregarded the two she threatened behind her.It was so much easier to focus on Rhynne.

Amani Serys | Alicio Organa | Rhynne Urdreth

 

[Rhynne Urdreth]

The girls face was a mixture of sadness and anger, somehow all sewn together in a look that was ready to burst to tears. She had never seen a Jedi before, but if this was what they did... they needed to pay for it. Seeing the blade before Alina, the blue glow against the red sprayed fur, Rhynne couldn't keep her thoughts in check, they did something to her, to her protector...

Charging forward she held the saber aloft, the bleeding crimson of the kyber crystal feeding off her toiling emotions as she filled with anger. They were going to pay, both of them, whatever they did would be punished. Without warning in a blink the girl closed the distance, attempting to skewer the lightsaber wielding man without so much as a second guess.

As far as Alina knew her, the girl was quiet, soft spoken, she was a good listener and did everything with highly focused intent; she wanted to learn, to grow, to do good in the universe; and in this moment, this was the good she could do.

"GET AWAY FROM HER!!!" Rhynne screamed in during the thrust, hoping to pierce flesh though her movements were sloppy, clearly she had never used a true lightsaber before.

Alina Tremiru | Amani Serys | Alicio Organa

 

[Amani Serys]

With Alicio's presence, Amani relaxed. She remained in place, letting the conflux of emotion settle. He would protect her. She could rest, and forget this had all even happened.

A large, beastly arm hit the ground with a thump, and Amani was jolted back into reality at the sight. She twisted around to see Alina's now three-limbed, wolfish form, screaming in rage. What Alicio had done was shocking on its own, but she was more afraid of what Alina would do to him. She grasped at air before finding his coat, using it to pull herself up, "Y-you-" She grabbed his shoulder, stumbling to find her footing as she tried to push him back, "You shouldn't be here. Alina- She'll kill you- She'll-" A glance back, and the Sith seemed to be placated, if only momentarily. Her apprentice acted as some sort of grounding presence for her, not unlike Amani and the Count. She used the fleeting opportunity as best she could, "Please. She's lost control. She won't stop-" In just a few seconds Amani had gone from dull and defeated to fully cognizant, adrenaline pumped through her veins and screamed to be used. There was too much at stake now. She wouldn't lose him.

Another scream split her focus. The apprentice, charging recklessly into the fray. Amani turned around with a glint in her eye. In one fluid motion, she unsheathed her saber from her belt, and raised it to block the attack; Blue and red scraped together with an unpleasant hiss as the latter was forced away from its intended target. "Leave. Now." She followed up by batting at the apprentice's weapon, trying to push her back, then posturing defensively. Her gaze flicked between Alina and her protege, regret supplanted by stone-faced disapproval. "I won't hold back anymore."

She settled on Alina, correcting her previous claims, "You betrayed me. You betrayed me."

Alicio Organa
Alina Tremiru | Rhynne Urdreth​

 

[Alicio Organa]

There was no accomplishment on Alicio's face as he severed the vampire's arm. When they had dueled on Jedha, Alicio had been a mess of fear and insecurity, unwilling to lash out in any meaningful way. Not anymore. Now, his face was a mask of sheer, boundless determination, his bladework fueled by a new confidence.

Back then, he had been fighting for his own life. Now, he was fighting for someone he would gladly die for.

Amani found her feet using him, but he didn't dare take his eyes off their opponents. Her concern, her fear for his sake, drew his mouth into a thin line, unmoving as she tried to push him. "I don't care. I'm not leaving you." He found the hint of a smile. "Dummy."

Alina seemed ready to retaliate, before her attention was caught by her lightsaber-wielding companion. It was only a moment of rest, before the horned individual flashed towards them. Alicio wouldn't have been able to block in time, he was rather new with the blade himself, but thankfully Amani was there to catch the stab.

Her following words revealed to Alicio that something was going on here. Something he didn't quite understand. He had to trust Amani. And if she says no mercy...

Alicio brought Introspect up to his face, then slashed down to the side in a classic Makashi salute, his eyes sparking with dark thunderclouds as he spied beyond the present.

... He would offer them none.

- Alina Tremiru - Rhynne Urdreth - Amani Serys -